USA > New Mexico > Santa Fe County > Santa Fe County: The Heart of New Mexico, Rich in History and Resources > Part 5
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Apparently the aborigines and early Spaniards exhausted this particular place of marketable turquoise, as considerable develop- ment was done a few years ago without success. This hill or mountain is of a white or yellowish appearance and is different from the surrounding hills; decomposition by kaolinization seems well advanced. Whether this alteration has been hastened by es- caping heat vapors or is due solely to surface and atmospheric agencies it is somewhat difficult to conjecture; the former action seems most probable. The numerous intrusive dikes which traverse the district have, no doubt, played an active part in the general metamorphism of the associated rocks. Bluish-green stains and streaks traverse this kaolinized rock in various irregular courses; it is along such lines of fracture that the marketable turquoise is likely to be encountered. Small seamlets and concretionary nodules, encased by the white or yellowish decomposed matrix are likely to contain valuable gems, although several tons of rock may frequently be broken and yet no valuable stones be found.
Three miles to the northeast of Mount Chalchuitl will be found the old Castilian mine, formerly worked by the Spaniards. About the year 1885 the property was exploited and located by a man bearing the name of Palmerly. The Muniz claim, one of
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PREHISTORIC STONE HAMMERS FOUND IN TURQUOISE MINE NEAR SANTA FE.
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SANTA FE COUNTY, NEW MEXICO.
the most important locations in the district, was made in the year 1889 by F. Muniz. In 1891, C. J. Storey located the Sky Blue, Morning Star and Gem claims. These latter five claims were bought by the American Turquoise Company of New Jersey about 1892 and are at Turquesa. Also, near and adjoining the properties of the American Turquoise Company, J. P. McNulty has three locations which were made since 1892. Mr. McNulty has been the mine manager for the Tiffany people for a number of years. There are a number of other properties in the district which have produced beautiful gems, among which may be mentioned the Blue Bell and Consul Mahoney. Only lately Romolo Valles and others have made new locations in this section, from which they are taking large quantities of fine turquoise.
Other Precious Stones.
Other precious stones besides the turquoise are found in Santa Fe County, the most plentiful gem being the peridot. Many beautiful garnets are found, these gems occurring in the grav- els, and are more or less associated with the peridot. A wide range in the variation of color is displayed in the garnets, which vary from a light rose to a bright red. This gem is fre- quently termed "ruby-garnet." A few valuable emeralds or beryls have been picked up from the gravels near Santa Fe and are highly prized for their great beauty. On a few occasions small sapphires and even diamonds have been accidentally found in gravel beds in Santa Fe County. Their occurrence, however, is very rare. Agates, amethysts, tourmaline, quartz crystals, carnelian, moon- stone, chalcedony and other gems are more or less common in the mountains. While definite figures are not at hand, yet it is known that the annual turquoise output of Santa Fe County has reached the value of $100,000.
Mina del Tierra.
Besides the ancient turquoise mines in the Cerrillos District, there exists a metal mine which was worked for its silver and lead and that is almost as old as the Chalchuitl working. It is known as the Mina del Tierra. In this mine exists the only real evidence of ancient lode mining in the Southwest; it antedates the first work done in the Ortiz and Santa Rita mines by at least a century. The old workings consist of an incline shaft of 150 feet which connects with a somewhat vertical shaft of about 100 feet in depth. Extensive drifts of 300 feet connect with various cham- bers or stopes; these chambers were formed by stoping or mining out the richer ore bodies. The full extent of the old workings
INTERIOR OF A SANTA FE HOME.
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has been never definitely determined, since the lower depths are covered with water, which would have to be pumped out to explore the mine fully. As late as 1870 the remains of an old canoe were still in evidence, which was used for crossing the water in the mine or as a carrier for conveying the waste and ore to the main shaft ; from this latter point it was carried by Indians to the sur- face in raw-hide buckets, or "tanates." The shaft had step-plat- forms or landings every twelve or fourteen feet, which were gained by climbing a notched pole (chicken ladder), similar to what some of the Pueblo Indians use at the present day. Many crude and curious relics, such as stone hammers and sledges, fragments of pottery, etc., have been taken from both the mine and the dump. It is thought that the Jesuits had this work performed by Indian slaves prior to 1680. The labor involved, when we take into con- sideration the crude manner of doing the work, is something tre- mendous. Throughout this district are a number of smaller pits and openings which are thought to have been made at that time from the association of similar crude implements found about the works. The ore from this mine is a sulphide of lead and zinc, carrying rather high values in silver. Silver was, no doubt, the principal metal sought and utilized.
The Lode Mines.
A smelting plant of two stacks, one for lead and the other for copper, of 50-tons each, was erected in 1902 at Los Cerrillos, on the railroad, but was never operated steadily. The ores of the district, without first making a separation of the lead from the zinc, cannot be successfully smelted at a profit. The Cash Entry, Grand Central and Tom Paine mines have been more extensively developed than most of the other properties and are credited with some production.
The Golden Eagle, M. & L., J. B. Weaver, Galena Chief, Fair- view, Sucker Boy, Evelyn group, Astor group, Empire State, Beta, Little Joe, Sunnyside, Whalen group and Ingersoll constitute the principal claims. There were fully one thousand locations made during the primary impulse of the excitement. The principal work is being done at present on the Keystone group.
The ores of the district are heavy sulphides of zinc and lead, carrying some silver and a little copper and gold. The region is thoroughly mineralized and on the west is traversed by numerous andesite and basalt dikes. The central core of the district about Grand Central Mountain is an augite-andesite porphyry; and in the region of the turquoise mines, at both Chalchuitl and Tur- quesa, it is much altered by kaolinization. Immediately east of
SALT LAKE SOUTH OF SANTA FE
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SANTA FE COUNTY, NEW MEXICO.
the augite-andesite area, embracing the Arroyo of San Marcos, the porphyry is recognized as a hornblende-andesite. Since the andesite formation embraces all of the metal mines in the district, it is attributed as being the chief carrier of the metalliferous values. This mineralized area is traversed by innumerable veins and vein- lets more or less irregular, but all having a general strike of about north 30 degrees east. It would seem that the numer- ous systems of veins and veinlets that abound in the district are due to the cooling of the andesitic magma, which resulted in ex- tensive checking and fracturing in adjusting itself to the changed condition. Escaping gases and aqueous vapors in their effort to escape along the lines of least resistance, deposited their metallic burden under released pressure. In addition to this phenomenon, circulating waters at a later period must have also given aid in the segregation of the metallic sulphides along these fractured zones.
A valuable contribution to the scientific literature on the Cer- rillos District is "The Geology of the Cerrillos Hills," by Prof. D. W. Johnson, formerly of the University of New Mexico, which appeared as a reprint from the Columbia School of Mines Quar- terly during 1903.
Near Glorieta and north toward the Rio Pecos, R. A. Bradley, the hermit miner, has done extensive development on several properties of gold, silver, copper and lead. The Kennedy iron mines at Glorieta have been developed considerably, and the ore at one time was extensively mined and shipped. The nature of this deposit is somewhat different from the other deposits, although its genesis is virtually the same.
Within three miles of Santa Fe are found mineral indications that will doubtless receive attention some time. This latter region abounds in copper, gold, silver, coal and iron. The Sunset group of claims lies about three miles northwest of Santa Fe and is being developed. Near Monument Rock, about nine miles east of Santa Fe, large ledges of low grade gold ore exist ; considerable development has been done there on the Montezuma mine. In the Santa Fe Canon, six miles from Santa Fe, are the Owen molyb- denum claims and a number of other properties. In the Little Box Canon of the Tesuque, four miles northeast of Santa Fe, ex- tensive development has been done on the Ingersoll and other groups which has uncovered large veins of copper, zinc, silver and gold. In this vicinity rich float has been picked up that assayed more than $600 gold to the ton. On Indian Creek is the Annie Jones group, which is very favorably located and seems to have
MONUMENT ROCK.
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a future. Along the "Scenic Highway" leading from Santa Fe to Las Vegas a number of lode claims are being developed, especi- ally in Dalton Canon.
The whole of the country lying to the northeast of Santa Fe, covered by the Pecos Forest Reserve, is known to be mineralized, and very promising finds are reported from time to time.
Mica.
The first mention of mica in New Mexico was made by Lieuten- ant Pike in his Report of 1807. He says: "Near Santa Fe, in some mountains, is a stratum of talc, which is so large and flexible as to render it capable of being subdivided into thin flakes, of which the greater portion of the houses in Santa Fe and all the villages to the north, have their window lights made." This mica evidently came from Nambe, northern Santa Fe County. Down to a period of time as late as the American Occupation in 1846 there were no glass windows in Santa Fe, excepting in the Old Palace. These mines at Nambe have been developed, but are not being worked at the present time.
Ocher.
In the vicinity of San Pedro are large deposits of ocher which partake of most every tint imaginable.
Brick, Clay and Lime.
The only paving brick made at present in New Mexico is by convict labor at the Territorial Penitentiary, Santa Fe. Much of this material is being laid in walks. This vitrified brick is of superior quality and finish; the clay comes from deposits just northeast of the City of Santa Fe, which are practically inexhaus- tible. From it, also, the Territorial Penitentiary makes the finest pressed building brick. Near by and all around are mountains of lime that is burned in crude ovens. Lime is also burned at Lamy and other points, for, with gypsum, it is the mineral that is most plentiful in Santa Fe County.
Coal.
The second coal mine to be opened in the Southwest was at Madrid, in the Cerrillos field, in 1869. Work was done here in two localities by the New Mexico Mining Company. At the first of these places the development consisted of two openings, from which 280 tons were mined, which the company used for steam purposes in its stamp mill at the Old Placers near by. The other point of work was a short distance to the southwest from
BRICK MAKING PLANT AT NEW MEXICO PENITENTIARY.
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SANTA FE COUNTY, NEW MEXICO.
the first openings; 100 tons were piled on the dump ready for use. In both localities the work was done on one of the anthracite veins. These observations were made by R. W. Raymond in 1870; and both were on the anthracite vein. Some of this anthracite coal was tested at Santa Fe by M. Brucker in his assaying furnace at that time. He states that he was able to obtain a white heat in a very short time and that its lasting qualities were about three times as long as that produced by an equal weight of charcoal. Coal was known to exist in 1870 at several other places-at a point about ten miles south of the anthracite deposits at Madrid, and near Galisteo Creek, as well as on the Pecos River.
The extraordinary condition found at the Madrid field is scarcely paralleled in any other region on the globe. Here are four dis- tinct workable veins of anthracite which are the nearest to the surface; below these are several workable veins of bituminous coal. It seems that these conditions were effected by intrusive dikes or laccoliths in proximity to the coal. Since anthracite is nothing more than metamorphosed lignite or bituminous coal, it is always expected to find associated intrusives in the immediate vicinity of such deposits of coking coal.
A section of the Madrid field shows, besides the four anthracite . veins, twelve others which may be eventually worked. The Madrid coal mines have produced as high as 100,000 tons of coal a year, but owing to a mine fire have been closed and the camp of Madrid with its hundred and more of company houses, store, public school and church has been temporarily abandoned.
Analysis of Cerrillos anthracite: (Analysis furnished by Colo- rado Fuel and Iron Company at Madrid: (W. D. Church, analyst, December 2, 1903).
Water, per cent 2.00
Volatile matter, per cent. 39.00
Fixed carbon, per cent. 53.76
Mineral ash, per cent. 5.24
Total, per cent. 100.00
Coke, per cent. 59.00
Character of coke, strong and tough ; color of ash, light yellowish- gray ; character of ash, soft and light.
Sulphur (as sulphide)
.010
Sulphur (as sulphate)
.022
Phosphorus .006
Specific gravity 1.410
1 cubic foot weighs, in pounds. 22.135
COAL MINE AT HAGAN, 50 MILES SOUTH OF SANTA FE.
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SANTA FE COUNTY, NEW MEXICO.
Analysis of mineral ash :
Silica, per cent. 26.93
Alumina, per cent. 32.41
Oxide of iron, per cent ..
3.96
Calcium oxide, per cent. 24.68
Magnesium oxide, per cent 10.32
Calcium sulphate, per cent .21
Alkalies and loss, per cent
1.49
Total, per cent. 100.00
Analysis of Cerrillos anthracite : ( Analysis furnished by the
Colorado Fuel and Iron Company).
Volatile combustible matter, per cent
3.18
Fixed carbon, per cent 88.91
Water, per cent 2.70
Ash, per cent . 5.21
South of the Madrid coal mines is the Block coal mine, also idle. It is owned by the Santa Fe Gold and Copper Company. Other veins or continuations of the same coal veins have been partially developed in that section and have proved to be part of the Hagan and Coyote coal fields in Sandoval County. In the immediate vicinity of Santa Fe, openings have been driven into coal veins which produce a good quality of bituminous coal, but which, owing to lack of capital and other causes, are idle. In the Dalton Canon coal seams crop out at several points, and in other parts of the county there is visible evidence showing that a large area is under- laid with coal.
Building Stone.
The county is not destitute, by any means, of good quali- ty building stones. The beautiful cream-colored sandstone used in the Capitol building came from a quarry on the hilltop at Lamy. Marble and good types of granite are found in the vicinity of Santa Fe. Quarries of fine red sandstone and blue limestone are being worked by contractors in the immediate vicinity of Santa Fe.
Lumber.
It is characteristic of Santa Fe County's mountains that they are well timbered. At one time saw mills at Glorieta furnished nearly all the timber needed by the Santa Fe Railway for its construction through New Mexico, including ties and bridge timbers. The es- tablishment of the Pecos Forest Reserve in the eastern part of
TERRITORIAL PENITENTIARY AT SANTA FE.
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SANTA FE COUNTY, NEW MEXICO.
the county has restricted lumbering operations somewhat, although, with permission of the government, considerable timber is cut on the Reserve. The Yellow Pine Lumber Company has established a camp six miles northeast of Santa Fe and is running a steam saw mill. Six miles southeast of Santa Fe a portable saw mill is cutting building timber. Until lately, the most extensive saw mill operations were carried on at Buckman's, and though the camp has been abandoned, yet the timber belt which supplied it is by no means exhausted. In the mountains directly east of Santa Fe railroad ties continue to be cut. Most of the timber is white and yellow pine and spruce. The mesas are covered with pinion and cedar, which furnish an abundance of firewood, besides giving the landscape for miles and miles a park-like appearance. At Santa Fe there is a planing mill.
Manufacturing.
Only a beginning has been made in manufacturing enterprises ; in fact, scarcely a beginning, although Santa Fe County offers every advantage to large manufacturing enterprises. There is the coal and the wood, the water power, the railroad transportation and competition, the markets, the cheap land, the supply of labor, the raw material, including wool, hides, lumber, ores, clay, lime, sugar beets and fruit.
By legislation, various lines of manufacturing enterprises are ex- empt from taxation for the first five years, and Santa Fe's Board of Trade is ready at any and all times to procure for bona fide indus- trial enterprises free building sites and other advantages.
Lime ovens are operated near Santa Fe, at Lamy, at San Pedro and other points; charcoal is burned at Lamy; Cerrillos and San Pedro have smelters; Golden has ore mills ; Lamy and Santa Fe have roundhouses ; Santa Fe has brick ovens and brick machinery; a planing mill, electric light works, a fruit evaporator, and is a cen- ter for the manufacture of filigree jewelry. It has the largest print- ing plant in the Territory. At Hobart and Santa Cruz are modern flour mills, and at Santa Fe is a grist mill. Near Santa Fe are two saw mills. But the number of people employed in manufac- turing establishments in the entire county at present does not exceed two hundred. The opening is especially promising for woolen mills, tanneries, shoe and glove factories, furniture factories, paper mills, beet sugar mills, cement mills, glass works, canneries, dis- tilleries, furnaces, iron and steel mills, brick yards and such other industries for which the raw material can be obtained in the im- mediate vicinity.
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RESIDENCES AT SANTA FE.
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SANTA FE COUNTY, NEW MEXICO.
RAILROADS.
It was in 1880 that the first railroad, the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe entered Santa Fe County. But even prior to that, Santa Fe was an important, in fact, the most important commercial center of the Southwest, merchandise and wealth pouring in over the historic Santa Fe Trail to be distributed from Santa Fe as far south as Mexico, and as far west as the Colorado River. The Texas, Santa Fe Northern Railroad, now a part of the Denver & Rio Grande, a narrow gauge line, was the second to build into the county, and in 1903 came the Santa Fe Central. These three railroads form a junction at the City of Santa Fe, the only city in New Mexico and Arizona, excepting Deming, with three in- dependent railroad lines. Santa Fe County has 140 miles of railroad, of which 60 miles belong to the Santa Fe System; 50 miles to the Santa Fe Central Railway, and 30 miles to the Denver & Rio Grande. The Santa Fe enters the county four miles east of Glorieta and leaves the county seven miles west of Cerrillos, the entire distance being 39 miles. From Lamy, a branch line eighteen miles long runs to Santa Fe. From Waldo, a three-mile line taps the coal camp of Madrid. The Denver & Rio Grande Railroad enters the county from the north at Santa Clara and has its ter- mimmus at Santa Fe. The Santa Fe Central starts at Santa Fe, where it has its main offices, and leaves the county two miles north of Moriarty. The county is thus bisected from north to south and from east to west by railroads, and is thus placed in a very ad- vantageous position as a commercial and tourist point. The Santa Fe System gives every through passenger on its main line, who desires it, a free side-trip to Santa Fe from Lamy.
ATTRACTIONS FOR THE TOURIST.
There is probably no other part of the United States which, within so small an area, has so many scenic, prehistoric and his- toric attractions as Santa Fe County. The most accessible Cliff Dwellers' region is the Pajarito Park, but one day's overland trip from Santa Fe, in which 20,000 cliff dwellings and caves are situ- ated within a comparatively small area. The scenery of this nat- ural park is superb; "wonderful" is the only adjective that will do justice to the caves in the cliffs, high and inaccessible almost as eagles' nests, but showing many other signs of occupation besides the peculiar picture writings in the soft volcanic tufa, of which the cliffs are composed. In addition to the cliffs, there are remains of communal buildings of later occupation, some of them contain- ing as many as 1,200 rooms. There are also burial mounds with remains of ancient pottery. Along the eastern foot of this steep
COMMUNAL DWELLINGS IN PAJARITO PARK.
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SANTA FE COUNTY, NEW MEXICO.
plateau flows the Rio Grande and are the villages of San Ildefonso, Santa Clara and San Juan, while to the west rise the stupendous mountain masses of the Valles, the Cochiti and the Jemez Ranges, with their deep forests and canons, their famous hot springs, their Indian villages and their mines.
The federal government is about to set apart this beautiful region as a national park, which, besides its cave, cliff and com- munal buildings, contains the mysterious Stone Lions of Cochiti. the Painted Cave and other archaeological wonders that have puzz- led scientists. Where else on earth is there so much of the beau- tiful in scenery, of romance, of historic monuments, of prehistoric remains, of the ancient, the unique, the picturesque, the sublime, to be found as within a radius of fifty miles of Santa Fe? One day's trip will take the wanderer from the historic Old Palace and San Miguel Church in the City of the Holy Faith, over the foot- hills of the Sangre de Cristo Range, from which rise in full view mountain peaks almost 13,000 feet high, into the picturesque Tesuque Valley and by the ancient Indian pueblo of Tesuque. The road winds over sand hills that the air and the rain have cut into grotesque shapes, huge as Titans and weird as the rock forma- tions in the Garden of the Gods. Then come once more fertile fields and the village of Cuyamungue, formerly an Indian pueblo. now a native settlement. Along the Nambe River, with its grand falls, close by the Indian pueblo of Nambe to the pueblo of San Ildefonso on the Rio Grande; then along that river through the laughing Espanola Valley, past the Black Mesa, a famous Indian battleground, into the large Indian pueblo of Santa Clara and its mission church to Santa Cruz, also with a quaint and ancient church building, threads the wagon road across the river into Espa- nola. From there the road ascends the wildly beautiful Santa Clara Canon, along a rippling trout stream up to the steep cliffs of the Puye and the Shufinne, with their hundreds and thousands of prehistoric caves and communal buildings. And all that in one day's journey overland ! If the trip be prolonged another day or two, the remarkable hot springs at Ojo Caliente and the hot springs in the deep chasm of the Rio Grande at Wamsley's, the Indian pueblos of Picuris and Taos, the finest trout streams and best haunts of wild game, or the Jicarilla Indian Reservation, the Jemez Forest Reserve, as well as busy lumber and mining camps, can be visited. And that is only in one direction from Santa Fe! Going south, one day's trip will pass through the quaint settlements of Agua Fria, Cienega and Cieneguilla, by the Tiffany turquoise mines, the old mining camp of Bonanza, the smelter at Cerrillos, the Ortiz gold placers, worked three hundred years before gold was
CLIFF DWELLINGS IN PAJARITO PARK.
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discovered in California and still yielding gold dust and nuggets, the coal mines at Madrid, where bituminous and anthracite coal have been mined from the same hillside, the placer and gold mines of Golden and San Pedro, not to speak of sheep and cattle ranches and the beautiful scenery of the Cerrillos, Ortiz, San Pedro and Sandia Mountains.
Another trip of one day from Santa Fe will take the traveler by the pueblo ruins of Arroyo Hondo, over Apache Hill, the battle- ground of Apache Springs, the interesting native settlement of Canoncito, over Glorieta Pass and the battlefield of Glorieta, to the upper Pecos River, by the ancient and historic Pecos Church ruins, the village of Pecos and through the most beautiful sum- mer resort country in the world, where trout streams babble in every canon and where from one summit can be surveyed the hoary heads of eleven of the twelve highest peaks in New Mexico.
Another day's trip out of Santa Fe will take the visitor up the rugged Santa Fe Canon, by the large reservoir and the Aztec min- eral springs to the Scenic Highway, which crosses the Santa Fe Range into the upper Pecos Valley and unfolds at every step new mountain views and panoramas magnificent beyond description. Nor do these trips exhaust the interesting points in and about Santa Fe, for there is the ascent of the Lake Peak and Mount Baldy, comparatively easy and yet taking. the tourist to an eleva- tion of almost 13,000 feet. Near the summit of the first named is the crystal Espiritu Santo or Holy Ghost Lake, reflecting the crags that form the rim of an ancient crater. Then there is a trip to a bottomless crater, to ancient Indian pueblos, to canons and gulches, to forests and mountains, to sparkling trout streams and waterfalls, or to the lairs of mountain lion and bear.
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